Monday, April 4, 2016

Charity never faileth!

Hello family! Happy spring break! Sounds like you guys had a fun time. Loved the pics and everything.

So... It's been a crazy week! As I said last week I got my hijito this week. His name is Elder Huaman from Perú. He's 18 years old... and yeah! Like you guys saw on Facebook we got to the training meeting that day, had our little training sessions, and then after lunch more or less we all took off our ties and our hijitos had to come find us. I knew about just as much as who my kid was going to be as he knew whose tie he was holding. I was sitting there like "who's going to get my TIE????" And then they gave it to him. It was fun.

And then we got back to the area... Cause our area is like a ten minute bus ride from the offices/stake center where we all just were. And so that night we went out and taught! And one of the first things you're supposed to be able to do your first week of training is be able to invite investigators to be baptized, and that's what I had Elder Huaman do. And the investigator accepted the invitation! So... Killing it there. First day in the mission and he's already inviting people to be baptized. Nice.

So he's a great kid. But I'll be completely honest: Training is not quite as awesome as I thought it would be. Yet... at least. I don't know what it is... But I just don't click with him very well! I don't know why. It's been a really hard few days. I imagined this being a lot easier. And I don't think I'm going to tell you any specifics on why I think that way, because I don't think it will help, and because I'm trying to focus on the positive. He's just testing my patience a lot. I'm always really good at getting along with anybody, and I especially don't fight with anybody. But this is proving to be more difficult for me. I've been doing a lot of praying these last few days, trying to figure out what I should do. Because that's part of the problem! Me. I've thought about it, and I really shouldn't have anything to complain about. He's got a drive to work, he's obedient as far as he understands (he still has to learn some of the rules and stuff) and I think he's pretty converted to the gospel! And even though he had a super serious back injury a few years ago that left him in his bed for months, he hasn't showed any signs of weakness in that regard yet. I think I'm just getting frustrated, impatient, and I might have a little bit of pride. Obviously I've got to teach him a lot of things, and it's also only been less than a week. But I'm still already impatient.

And then conference happened! And I received the exact answer I was looking for in priesthood session. President Uchtdorf talked about how we can save our families and marriages, but in this case I took it in terms of my companionship in the misison as well. And something he said caught me more powerfully than it ever has before, even though I've heard it a million times in my life. "Charity never faileth." I don't even think I knew what that meant until I heard him say it. But if I have charity, and if I show him charity, it won't not work. Talk about answers to prayers right? I've never understood that phrase until now. Kind of interesting :)

So it's going to take some patience and humility, but especially charity. I've got until June with him, so I hope I can figure this out before that :) That's about it for this week though. I love you all!

Elder Bingham

I don't know the next time I'm going to be able to send you guys pics... Because I left my card reader and my camera's memory card with all my mission pictures on it in the Cyber last week. And they don't have it anymore :( :( :(

On the bright side I already bought a new memory card, and I had backed up all my photos up to November on a pen drive. I'm only missing like 4 months of photos. :)